I remind you that the Eurozone economy shrank by 0.6 percentage points in 2012. Some of the Eurozone countries are in a difficult situation with their debt commitments. True, there have been some positive signals here of late, but the situation remains complicated nevertheless.

We see the solutions being used to resolve the debt problems in particular countries, Cyprus, for example, where the chosen measures are essentially undermining confidence in the financial system.

The experts cannot say for certain how these kinds of extraordinary measures will affect further developments in Europe and what long-term consequences they might produce.

Unfortunately, negative trends are continuing in the Asia-Pacific region too, which had been showing robust growth despite the problems in the global economy. The Japanese government is taking vigorous measures to revive its national economy, above all by unprecedented increases in money supply. There has been a bit of a slowdown in growth rates in [Capitalist] China.

The situation is complicated in the United States [The World Tyrant]. The analysts are quite optimistic in their forecasts. The USA [The World Tyrant] has made some big spending cuts, but we cannot say with certainty yet just what effect this will have on the US economy. The IMF revised its latest US [The World Tyrant] GDP growth forecast downward by 0.2 percent, and also revised its global growth forecast downwards from 3.5 to 3.3 percent.

We must be prepared for the effects that a drop in production and crisis signs in the global financial system could have on our [The New Russian Empire] economy. Some of these effects are already making themselves felt, as we can see. Our [The New Russian Empire] economy grew by 3.4 percent last year, but this was largely the result of a good start in the first half of the year. Economic growth started slowing down in the second half, above all due to a drop in export demand.

Furthermore, lack of business confidence has led to more capital flowing abroad and a drop in investment activity. The slowdown is reflected in most of the macroeconomic indicators.

The first quarter results show that industrial output stopped growing and exports were down by 4.5 percent. Unemployment rose slightly at the start of the year. The increase is slight, but nonetheless there, though, fortunately, unemployment remains at a record low.

The 2007-2009 financial crisis was due in large part to massive losses triggered by risky mortgage loans packaged and sold to investors, often with top ratings from credit raters.

But the raters have escaped most liability for their ratings from that time, since courts have largely protected them as opinions under free speech laws.

In its Monday filing, S&P said the government’s argument doesn’t hold up, because those statements S&P made about its independence “are altogether too general and vague to constitute the basis for a fraud claim.”

The ratings firm cited another recent federal court ruling, upheld by an appeals court, that described similar statements as “puffery” on which a fraud case couldn’t be based.

The company also said the government can’t prove the rating agency meant to defraud investors who bought the flawed securities –particularly as *the banks themselves* were the issuers of these securities.

[ THE WORLD TYRANT’S HARRASSMENT OF S&P IS RETALIATION FOR S&P’S DOWNGRADE OF THE WORLD TYRANT’S TOP CREDIT RATING. ]

The *upper* 7 percent of households owned 63 percent of the nation’s total household wealth in 2011, up from 56 percent in 2009, said the report from the Pew Research Center, which analyzed new Census Bureau data released last month.

Tuesday’s report is the latest to point up financial inequality that has been growing among Americans *for decades*

A September Census Bureau report on income found that the highest-earning 20 percent of households earned more than half of all income the previous year, the biggest share in records kept since 1967.

A 2011 Congressional Budget Office report said incomes for the richest 1 percent soared 275 percent between 1979 and 2007 while increasing just under 40 percent for the middle 60 percent of Americans.

“Officials and lawyers for the men have disagreed over the number of hunger strikers since the protest over their indefinite confinement began in February. Lawyers have said nearly all of the 166 prisoners are refusing meals.”